Typically, traffic alerts are received from air traffic control (ATC) through voice communication annunciated within the cockpit of a host aircraft. The audible traffic alerts bring to the pilot's attention issues such as intruding aircraft traffic or aircraft traffic that should be monitored. As might be expected, traffic alerts provide a standardized format of identifying traffic information such as, but not limited to, a subject aircraft's bearing, altitude, distance, and type.
After hearing a traffic alert, the pilot will typically identify the subject aircraft. Identifying the subject aircraft can be a high cognitive workload task; the pilot must comprehend the audible information and integrate the audible information with a complexity of visual information. The pilot's visual channel for information flow may already be highly loaded during flight operations. A traffic alert further loads the visual channel of information flow, requiring the pilot to locate the subject aircraft among the neighboring aircraft on the aircraft's traffic display. In the case of VSA, the pilot needs to locate the subject traffic on the traffic display, and possibly out the window. After visually locating the subject aircraft, the pilot communicates to ATC the flight identification of subject aircraft, which is also called the preceding aircraft. After confirmation of the preceding aircraft from ATC, the pilot selects the preceding aircraft. Selecting the preceding aircraft is traditionally a manual task of entering information into a user input device. The aforementioned activities can further increase pilot cognitive load. Thus, there is a need for reducing the visual and manual cognitive workload associated with responding to traffic alerts.
Accordingly, a system and method capable of responding to an audible traffic alert by visually depicting the identified neighboring aircraft traffic on the onboard display is desirable. It is further desirable for the system and method to employ speech recognition in order to minimize the visual and manual cognitive workload associated with responding to a traffic alert. The desired system and method maximizes the pilot's hands-on control of the host aircraft.